• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Meet the Girl ↡
    • About Abby
    • Contact
  • Projects ↡
    • Organization
      • All Organization
      • Printables Library
      • Productivity
    • Decorating
      • Our Home Tour
        • Current House Home Tour
        • Townhouse Home Tour
      • All Decorating
      • DIY
      • Furniture Makeovers
      • Crafts
      • Holidays
    • Blogging
      • All Blogging
      • Income Reports
    • Happy Thoughts
  • My Products ↡
    • Impactful Habits, Organized Home Organizing Course
    • Browser to Buyer
    • Blogging Binder Printables
    • Home Binder Printables
    • Student Binder Printables
    • Christmas / Holiday Planner
    • Fitness Journal
  • Free Resources ↡
    • ClarityList for Bloggers
    • How to Start a Blog in 2020
    • 100+ Blogging Tips, Tools, and Resources to Grow Your Business
    • My Favorite Organizing Items
  • Income Reports

Abby Lawson logo

October 17, 2017 By Abby Lawson 24 Comments

An Organized + Masculine Home Office: Reveal!

Pin455
Share4
Tweet
Email
459 Shares

This organized and masculine home office has tons of functional storage space, a versatile sitting to standing desk, and a cozy corner to sit and relax. The perfect mix of form and function really helps to maximize productivity.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, masculine office space, before and after transformation

It's done!!! For the past few weeks we've been talking about Donnie's organized yet oh-so-masculine home office, and I'm delighted to say that it is finished! (And he is even more delighted because he loves it SO much!)

This room makeover was truly Donnie's "baby." He would ask my opinion on things here and there, but for the most part, he picked everything himself because I wanted it to be the perfect space for him!

As a little reminder, here is what his office looked like before we started:

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, before

He needed to store a bunch of stuff in a not-so-huge space, but clearly the hodge podge of furniture we had thrown together just was not working. It doesn't look like this anymore, though! You can take the video tour or scroll through the photos below.

An Organized + Masculine Home Office: Reveal!

Click here to subscribe to our Abby Organizes YouTube channel!

An Organized Home Office Tour

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Donnie's office is right off the living room, so it's in a pretty central location in the house. It faces the back of our lot, so he has a great view and lots of windows for light. It's not a huge space, but we knew that with the right systems in place, we could definitely make it work for him.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, office entrance

Right when you walk in the door of Donnie's office, you'll see his seating area. He had wanted a POANG chair for years but never had room for one in our old house, so he got his wish with this office!

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, chair and footrest

Last week we shared a video about how we installed a wall of Elfa shelving from The Container Store on the other side of the room, but we also put a smaller Elfa setup over in this corner. Donnie loved the idea of using their utility board with a few little shelves and cups to hold things like his keys, wallet, headphones, and other items he uses often.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa utility grate

We also attached a larger shelf to this unit to act as his side table. He likes having things up off the ground so there's not a lot of clutter on the floor, so this was the perfect solution.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa utility grate, office corner

We put one more little shelf at the top of the unit to ground it a bit and added some decorative books and a faux plant, and his cozy office corner was complete!

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa utility grate, office corner, craftsman style window trim

A smaller detail that I think made a big difference in this space was the addition of chunky craftsman style window trim. All of the windows in our house just came with a small sill and no other trim, so Donnie has slowly but surely been upgrading each one, and I think it adds so much character!

(The bamboo shades on all of the windows are these ones in the Bali Abaca color.) Donnie added matching trim around the door as well. (You can get the tutorial for the trim work in this post.)

Another challenge we had to tackle in Donnie's office was his desk situation. He had been using a standing desk that we built in our last house, which he liked, but since he has been doing a lot of video editing on the desktop computer, he wanted to have the option to sit as well.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa utility grate, office corner, motorized sitting standing desk

He found this motorized desk from Fully (the Jarvis model) that allows him to adjust the height of the desk to sitting or standing as needed. It has presets that he has programmed to his ideal sitting and standing heights or he can move it manually to any height he wants.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa utility grate, office corner, motorized sitting standing desk, Jarvis by Fully

That white box under the desk is an air purifier.

The up and down motion of the desk is so smooth that he doesn't have to worry about items falling over or the computer parts being damaged. It really was the perfect solution for this space.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa utility grate, office corner, motorized sitting standing desk, IKEA TOBIAS chair

The biggest change to Donnie's office space was the addition of a wall of shelves and drawers on the back wall! We showed it empty last week, but here it is all filled up and organized:

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving and drawers

We went with Elfa's sand colored shelves and platinum rails and brackets to give Donnie the masculine look he was going for. The combination of shelves and drawers holds all of his items perfectly, so he can store everything he needs without it looking cluttered.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving and drawers, Bosch l-boxxes for tools

The boxes on the bottom shelves are actually tool boxes, but Donnie uses them to store our video equipment because they have great dividers and allow him to keep everything neatly organized.

The mesh drawers hold a variety of things. One acts as Donnie's "inbox" for paperwork. Another holds wires and cables. One has his office supplies, etc. He was able to use dividers within the drawers to keep each one tidy.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving and drawers, mesh drawer with dividers

There are also clip on tags made specifically for these drawers, so Donnie used my label maker to add a label to each one so he could easily  tell what was inside.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving and drawers, mesh drawer with clip on tag

The upper shelves hold alllllllllll of Donnie's books. He has actually pared down his collection quite a bit, believe it or not, but he reads all the time, so it was important to him to have storage space for all of the books that he loves and wanted to keep physical copies of.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, book storage

In addition to his book collection, Donnie also left space to house his video cameras and lenses so they are always easy to grab (usually there are two cameras, but we were shooting video with one that day) and some plastic bins to hold his magazines. There are even a few empty bins, so he has room to grow if he needs to!

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, plastic bins

At the recommendation of the designer at The Container Store, Donnie used ventilated shelves on the top row to hold his larger video equipment like tripods, light stands, boom mics, etc. He keeps a little stool by his desk, which makes it easy to grab this equipment when he needs it.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, plastic bins

We were able to attach hooks from the Elfa system to the brackets holding the ventilated shelves so Donnie could hang things like his backpack on one side, and his fly fishing rod on the other.

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, fly fishing rod storage from hooks

This wall of shelving is so incredibly functional and allows Donnie to store a ton of stuff while still looking neat and uncluttered, which was the goal in the beginning!

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, masculine office space

I've gotten lots of questions about why we chose to use the Elfa system in this space rather than the similar IKEA ALGOT system (now called BOAXEL), which we've used in a bunch of the closets in both this house and our last house. While we love ALGOT and will probably use it again in the future, it only comes in white, so Donnie liked the more masculine sand/platinum combination from Elfa better for his space.

There were also a few pieces that he wanted to use that Elfa offered and ALGOT did not, so that also played into our decision. We also had never tried Elfa before and had heard great things about it, so we wanted to try it out for ourselves and see how we liked it.

Donnie is absolutely loving his new office space, and is spending a lot more time in there than he was when his office was cluttered and messy! Having a space that is perfect for him allows him to focus and be more productive as well, which is always a win.

The before/after difference is pretty incredible. Let's take a look:

Home Organization- Organized and Masculine Home Office Reveal, man cave, office organization, The Container Store, Elfa, built in shelves, POANG, IKEA, standing desk, window trim, manly office, room makeover, room reveal, Elfa sand and platinum shelving, masculine office space, before and after

(I also convinced him that he didn't need to store his rowing machine in the middle of his office. That helped too. 🙂 )

I am so thrilled that Donnie finally has his dream office! He has more than earned it, and it is so fun for me to watch him enjoying his new space. If you have any questions about where we got the items we used for his office, I will include a source list below.

Sources

POANG Chair + Footrest

Pillow

Lamp

Map, Frame

All Shelving and Drawers

Bamboo Shades

Desk

Desk Chair

Desk Lamp Base, Shade

Air Purifier

Stool

Tool Boxes

Paint Color

And if you missed any of the earlier posts about Donnie's office, you can catch up here:

Planning a Masculine and Organized Home Office

How to Install Elfa Shelving from The Container Store

An Organized + Masculine Home Office: Reveal! (You're here!)

[Psssttt… You can find ideas for organizing every single room of the house in this post!]

Have you ever organized a home office? I'd love to hear your best tips in the comments!

Thank you so much for following along! Have a great week!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Filed Under: Abby Organizes, Decorating Tagged With: home office, masculine, organized

Pin455
Share4
Tweet
Email
459 Shares
Free Printables Library at justagirlandherblog.com

Get 200+ pages of free printables!

Become one of our VIP newsletter subscribers and gain access to our exclusive free printables vault!

I want in!
Previous Post: « Craft Supply Giveaway!
Next Post: An Organized Coffee Station and an Organized Smoothie Station »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karen @ a house full of sunshine says

    October 17, 2017 at 7:09 am

    You guys have done a great job! I'm loving the wall colour, and I could look at organised shelves all day long 🙂 (I'm a nerd like that...)

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 17, 2017 at 10:31 am

      A girl after my own heart! 🙂 Thanks so much, Karen! Hope you're having an awesome day!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  2. Danielle Renke says

    October 17, 2017 at 10:37 am

    What an awesome space! Daves office is the first room I want to do in our new home because he's been without for so long and you've put together one that finally fits what I've been looking for for him! I'm so excited to share it with him and get him on board. 🙂

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 17, 2017 at 10:42 am

      Aw, good! So glad it was helpful for you, Danielle! I hope he loves it as much as Donnie does! 🙂 Have a great day!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  3. Janet says

    October 17, 2017 at 10:40 am

    Where do you store the rowing machine now? 🙂

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 17, 2017 at 10:46 am

      It's in the basement for now. Donnie may bring it back up into his office at some point and just fold it up when he's not using it! 🙂 Hope you're having a great week, Janet!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  4. Sarah | The Teacher's Wife says

    October 17, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    Oh yay for Donnie! Looks awesome - he makes a great point about feeling more productive when in an organized space. So true!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 19, 2017 at 10:39 am

      I'm excited for him, too! He's loving his new space. It really does make you want to be more productive when you enjoy your workspace! 🙂 Happy Thursday, Sarah! <3

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  5. Jean says

    October 18, 2017 at 3:43 am

    You did a great job, it's so well thought out and looks wonderful. Congratulations!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 19, 2017 at 10:38 am

      Aw, you're too sweet! Thanks so much, Jean! Hope you're having a wonderful week! <3

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  6. Amy Boyle says

    October 18, 2017 at 7:58 am

    Abby (and Donnie!) this looks great. I wanted to check out that desk as my husband is big on standing while he works. Such great organization ideas, I need to get to work on my husbands office!
    XO
    Amy

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 19, 2017 at 10:37 am

      Thanks so much, Amy! Donnie LOVES the desk. It really is pretty cool! Enjoy working on your hubby's office! <3

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  7. Roni says

    October 21, 2017 at 10:34 am

    I'm really enjoying all of your posts and have put some of your ideas to work in our home. We are definitely going to look into the sit/stand desk for my husband, Ken. He had back surgery 9 years ago and can't sit all day without pain - this would be perfect for him. As a lover of your paperless system, I am curious: Where is the scanner? =) Thanks for all of your wonderful ideas and God bless you and your family!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 26, 2017 at 10:19 am

      Hi, Roni! The scanner is on one of the upper shelves on the wall of shelving! Donnie will still pull it out occasionally, but he is able to do most of his day-to-day scanning with the Scanbot app (He currently has an Android. When he had an iPhone he used the Scannable app). I hope you're having a wonderful week!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  8. AJ Reeves says

    October 21, 2017 at 10:40 am

    Abby,
    As always an amazing, informative post. You showed a picture of the picture mastic file holders but no reference to where you got them. Could you let me know. Thanks, AJ Reeves- theknuckleheadranch.com

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 26, 2017 at 10:16 am

      Hi, AJ! The plastic file holders are from The Container Store and come in a bunch of different sizes! Hope you're having a wonderful week!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  9. Karen Joyce says

    October 21, 2017 at 11:53 am

    Beautiful!! I'm going to borrow some of your ideas to create a study space for my son . . thanks for all the help!!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 23, 2017 at 10:03 am

      Oh, good! So glad it was helpful for you, Karen! Have a great week! <3

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  10. Rebecca says

    October 25, 2017 at 12:56 am

    Well I didn't think you wo uld do it, but you have! You answered all my off the wall questions, like what is that hanging on the side (fly reel), what are those blue boxes, tool boxes? Yup! It looks great!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 25, 2017 at 10:14 am

      Lol! Glad we covered them all, Rebecca! Thanks for checking it out!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  11. Livia says

    November 04, 2017 at 12:03 am

    Hi, I'm new to your blog and loved the idea about keeping things off the floor, makes cleaning easier! I'm currently trying to organise my space at home too and just curious, how do you guys manage dust and cleaning for open shelves? I'd love to try open shelving but just concerned that dusting and keeping such spaces clean would be an issure compared to bookcases and wardrobes which keep the dust out... Would love your thoughts/ tips on this!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      November 05, 2017 at 10:07 pm

      I just use a regular old dust cloth and dusting spray! Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy, I have a little feather duster thing I use. 🙂

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  12. Trevor says

    December 18, 2017 at 9:42 am

    Wow, I could live in an office like that one. I especially like the nifty setup in the corner making a comfortable reading spot even when he's not getting all that glorious natural lighting. Office envy.

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      December 18, 2017 at 10:13 am

      Thanks, Trevor! Donnie definitely loves it, too!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You have to agree to the comment policy.

Primary Sidebar

Hey there, friend! I'm Abby, and I'm so thrilled you stopped by! I love working to create a beautiful, thriving home, life and business and helping others do the same.

Read my story→

Let's Connect!

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Let's Get Organized!

Impactful Habits, Organized Home organizing course | https://abbylawson.com/ihoh
Deluxe Home Binder Printables | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-home-binder-printables

Stick to your fitness goals!

Deluxe Fitness Journal | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-fitness-journal-printables

How to Start a Blog

How to Start a Blog: The Definitive Guide

Our Course for Bloggers

Blogging: Organized

Deluxe Blogging Binder Printables | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-blogging-binder-printables

Favorite Posts

Free Printable Library | 50+ Free Organizing Printables

50+ Free Printables to Organize Every Area of Your Life

home- cozy office nook, feminine home office, organized home office, small office, decorating, farmhouse office

A Cozy Office Nook

Ryan Homes Palermo Before and After Home Tour 2.5 Years In

Before and After Home Tour: Two and a Half Year Update

Free Printable Budget Binder Cover

Budget Binder for 2021 (with FREE Printables!)

Home organization- How to Organize Every Space in Your House, declutter, organizing, small space organization

How to Organize Every Space in Your House

Student Binder Printable Organizing Pages

Printable Student Binder

Personal Posts

Breast Cancer Awareness Month My Story by Just a Girl and Her Blog

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: My Story

This girl started out knowing nothing about blogging or online business and made 6 figures last year. Time to start that blog I've been thinking about!

From Hobby Blog to Thriving Business: My Blogging Story

Archives

Post Categories

Copyright

I love it when you share! Please keep in mind that all images and text on this site are property of Just a Girl and Her Blog. Feel free to use one or two photos provided that a link back to my original post is included. Please do not remove any watermarks, crop, or edit any of my images without first obtaining written permission from me. All free printables offered are for personal use only. Pinning is always welcome and appreciated! Thank you!

Privacy Policy & Disclosures

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Read our privacy policy and disclosures →

© 2021 Twenty Three Publishing LLC